I am the founder of Madam, a creativity consultancy, helping marketers source and activate the creativity to drive their brands and services. I believe that creativity is the business differentiator, is the business driver, irrespective of whatever business we are actually in. A native of England, I landed in New York 22 years ago and spent many of those years as ECD of EURO RSCG NY creating campaigns for Intel and JPMorgan, introducing numerous Volvos to the world, establishing MCI in the internet age, overseeing corporate campaigns for Exxon Mobil, helping Jaguar become more ‘Gorgeous’, encouraging people to ‘Talk to Chuck’, launching Howard Stern up to Sirius Satellite Radio, handling a multitude of global products for Reckitt Benckiser, and The New York Stock Exchange. I’ve judged numerous global award shows including film juries at Cannes, the Clios and APAC’s ‘Spike’ awards. And if that doesn’t ensure credibility, I’m one of the few people in the US who understands the game of cricket.
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What they raised that day contributed more than 10% of the University’s financial aid budget for next year.

A pretty phenomenal day’s fundraising in anyone’s book.

I’d heard about it early on the morning of the 13th (a significant number at Colgate) as my wife is a Colgate Alumna (and contributed) who spent the rest of the day following the blitzkrieg closely and texting me with the latest financial sound-barrier the campaign had blown through.

On Friday, December 13th (Colgate, evidently was founded by 13 men, with 13 prayers and $13) an anonymous donor had agreed to give $1 million toward financial aid if 1,300 other alums would contribute as well.

Later that morning, another generous anonymous donor threw in $3M if an additional 1,300 donors chipped in.

One by one, more anonymous donors upped the ante until by nightfall Colgate had amassed a total of $5.1 million from 5,683 unique donors. Quite a feat when the school had never gone over 600 donors in a day.

So let’s cut to NPR and see how they go about a similar objective on their famous fundraising weekends.

The fundraising weekends, which if you’re a regular listener (and yes, I have contributed) now seem to happen every month or so and drone on about how worthy and useful NPR is. That it is quite clearly a national treasure and must be protected like an endangered species.

They build excitement by mentioning that if you don’t contribute now, not only will you miss out on a lovely mug for your morning cuppa, a tote bag if you’re a big spender, or a pack of 16 CD’s loaded with Baroque music, but you will be banished from respectable society, and have a scarlet letter henna’d on your forehead.

Imagine trying to engage the next generation NPR listeners, -the Millennials, with those incentives

All the current fundraising efforts on NPR encourage everyone to tune elsewhere until the blessed weekend is over.

And even if you do contribute, you still have to listen to the entire three days of fundraising

So what can NPR learn from Colgate?

1. Start with the idea of respecting your audience. Yes, they may be supporters but make them want to contribute, love you even more, not lead them into a guilt trip. My wife felt a sense of pride in contributing to Colgate, because it connected her to something much bigger and there was a common shared purpose in her contribution.

2. Activate your supporters. These days you are a successful marketer if you start a compelling conversation. Get people who love you talking and get them engaging new people in the quest. Allow the community to go out and encourage others to join in the cause. Don’t endlessly berate your listeners with requests.

3. Create drama. A “blitzkrieg” as Zack described what Colgate did. Turn it into an event. Make it fun, have energy, make it something that people want to tune into and share, not turn away from.

4. Get focused. Activate your network; Colgate activated WRCU which covers only 20-25 miles from its base in Hamilton, NY. NPR is National. How could that be made interesting? One station competing against others? Maybe.

5. Use technology. Give people a reward beyond a tote bag. With all the technology available there must be a way for a person who has contributed early to be able to listen to programming without the fundraiser. What use of second screen could be activated?

6. Ask for professional help. There’re many talented people and agencies that could help on this; agencies and people who would gladly build a brilliant fundraising culture for NPR. Make it interesting programming in itself. I’d be happy to help.

NPR is either a national treasure or a national drain, depending on what side of the aisle you sit. But that’s not the point here. It has some great content and needs to be funded like all businesses. While receiving some public funding NPR has chosen not to be funded by taking advertising and by appealing to the public directly for support.

But it needs to stop bleating on about the righteousness of NPR and start engaging people with the brilliance and innovation of NPR.

Do that in an engaging, enjoyable, daring, unexpected, and entertaining way.

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hi david, thanks for the comments. and the point wasn’t about comparing the two , rather than, for years Colgate had gone about fundraising in a particular way. and this year they did something different. which is what, as a huge NPR fan, i would encourage them to do. perhaps they should re think being 9000 local stations raising money in their local communities…perhaps they should consider new ways of activating their supporters….thats all I’m advocating. i agree they have great content. i just think they could do this part of their content a little better.

This piece has some great points and insights…and a few things worth commenting on. Full disclosure: I’ve been a public radio fundraiser for almost ten years and am a board member of the Public Radio Association of Development Officers. I care about this stuff in a way most normal humans don’t. Points 1 – 4 are solid and good fundraisers at member stations remember these things when creating their fundraisers.

As others have pointed out, it’s not NPR doing the pledge drive…it’s local stations. In my experience public radio station fundraisers are consistently looking for ways to keep their own pledge drives fresh, interesting, quick, and effective, all out of respect for the audience and belief in our mission. Our industry is FULL of creative, hard-working, passionate and (most likely) underpaid professionals who have devoted their career to keeping public radio going. That or they really like tote-bags.

“But it needs to stop bleating on about the righteousness of NPR and start engaging people with the brilliance and innovation of NPR. Do that in an engaging, enjoyable, daring, unexpected, and entertaining way. And then ask for some cash.”

Spot on. And we should remember it. After a 12-hour day of pitching and too much coffee it’s tempting to lapse into the guilt and whining message…we can’t do that.. Every pledge drive producer should replace “NPR” with their station name, print that line off and tape it to their cube wall. People give to public radio because they believe in it…and they think it is an important part of their life. It’s that simple.

“Even the BBC has worked that out.”

Not to end on a negative point…but…well, not really. The BBC is funded differently (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/finance) and it’s kind of backwards from NPR. The largest source of its money is from the UK government, i.e. tax dollars. A very small portion is from voluntary donations. It’s the other way around at NPR and local member stations, generally speaking. More on how NPR (the big guys in DC) is funded can be found here: http://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finances

I absolutely love the BBC, but the public radio funding model in the US is inspiring thousands (millions?) of people listening to a free service to donate voluntarily. How great is that?

hi greg, really appreciate your thoughts. thanks for the response. I’m sure that NPR is filled with passionate and talented people, who as you say mostly do it for love..( or tote bags:)…and they do a brilliant job. i am an ardent NPR fan and a marketer, so i look at the current way of raising money, and i ask that it could be improved. re-looked at as every marketer in the country has had to do in the past 5/10 years. digital/social/internet/mobile has changed everything, and i implore NPR to think things through and make these times, engaging and exciting…and i love your thought “Every pledge drive producer should replace “NPR” with their station name, print that line off and tape it to their cube wall.” thanks again.brilliant…ps. I’m a brit and an an “auntie” contributor for years…..but they are learning some new tricks….

There’s a couple of problems with point #5. “With all the technology available there must be a way for a person who has contributed early to be able to listen to programming without the fundraiser. What use of second screen could be activated?” In short, this is far too expensive for most NPR member stations, and it reproduces something that listeners already do on their own. Here’s a longer explanation: There is one NPR member station that has a fundraiser-free stream, KQED in San Francisco. They give a special code to donors who can then use that code to access an internet audio stream that plays fundraiser-free programming. The stream can be heard on a desktop or laptop computer, a smartphone, or a tablet. The thing is, the people who have a device where they can hear this 2nd stream already have an easy way to hear fundraiser-free programming. They can use their device to listen to a different public radio station, one that has very similar programming (aside from local newscasts and features). They don’t even have to enter a special code in order to listen. Running a second fundraiser-free program stream requires a 2nd studio, announcer and support staff, plus the technical infrastructure and customer support for the second stream. KQED is one of the largest public radio stations in the country and has the staffing to devote to this project. Many public radio stations have somewhere around 20 employees – not nearly enough to run a fundraiser, regular programming, plus a 2nd fundraiser-free stream.

hi james, thanks for your response. as an east coast NPR listener I’m not aware of what west coast has been working on. sounds like a good idea. as you say needs another think…(a second studio/announcer/support staff doesn’t sound a good option)….but i love the original thinking… reward the listener who had contributed..( maybe its just re-runs, i don’t know but the thought is good). and i think theres a model here….obviously there are many issues here…I’m just encouraging everyone the think it through again….and come up with some new ideas…..as everyone in businesss is being encouraged to do

Thank for the reply, Michael. As a public radio employee, I’ve heard this suggestion many, many times. It seems to work well for KQED, but it’s just not technically or financially feasible for any but the largest stations. There are many people in public radio trying many different things, and it’s interesting to hear your perspective as someone who is outside of public radio production, but is a big fan as well.

thanks for the reply james. i think the people in public radio do a great job, and provide an important service. the content is great. I’m just advocating for the content of the fundraisers to be as compelling, innovative, interesting, amusing or powerful as the content it creates every day……

Great piece — I couldn’t agree more re: NPR. I’m a fairly loyal listener, but the endless fundraising campaigns drive me nuts (given my Jewish-Catholic background, I get enough guilt already, thank you very much!) and I just change the dial. Why not make it a one-day affair and try to top some outlandish goal, as Colgate did? Provide some incentive for listeners to spread the word via social media (perhaps a free lunch with your favorite host goes to one lucky Tweeter)? Anything but the guilt trip…

Zach – you missed the point. NPR does not do the fundraising. Local stations do it. You say you are a fairly loyal listener, but you do not listen to NPR – you listen to a station which broadcasts programming it gets from PRI, AMPG, NPR and probably the BBC…… PLUS programs it produces locally. You can’t generalize about the guilt trip irritation based on your experience with one or two stations in your local market. Out of 900 stations in this country there is a pretty good chance your local station’s fundraising is similar to many and different from many.

hi zack, my piece was inspired by my wife (as a Colgate Alumna following the blitzkrieg) and your piece. so thank you…… and me being an NPR fan. i agree…there must be ways to turn this into an enjoyable event that i enjoy, share, contribute to, share, laugh about, share, am inspired by, share, (and even look forward to, share) as opposed to endure or switch station. i certainly don’t have the solution, but there’s people out there who do…..